Michael DeWayne Walker was serving a 21-year sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child when he was put in a cell with Wilbert "Peanut" Hamilton in 2006.

Hamilton beat him to death, and Walker's parents have sued on the grounds that guards and prison officials knew Hamilton was a violent psychotic and that he was allowed to have steel-toed boots in his cell.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees have sought to have the suit dismissed on grounds of immunity, but federal judge Kenneth Hoyt has ruled the parents' claims can be heard.

There's a factual dispute over how long the beating went on -- Walker's parents say it lasted five hours, and guards should absolutely have been able to hear it, while the defendants in the suit say it was only a few minutes.

The guards also say there was no formal policy made clear to them that child-sex offenders should be kept isolated from the general prison population for their safety, or that the steel-toed boots had to be left in the prison work area and not taken into the cell.

In court documents, Walker's parents say Hamilton "was regarded as crazy and had a reputation for beating on his cellmates." They claim Hamilton warned guards he would kill Walker as they were putting him in the cell.

Putting him there violated their son's constitutional right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, their suit says.

My uncle conviction was turned over after DNA evidence exsonorated him on him on the rape and murder of his own daughter. He spent 11 years in prison and was raped repeatedly while he ws there. He was innocent.........

So many are not, but so many are..........what do you do........my uncle will never be the same but he has been vidicated. But he still needs an anal retread.......

The guy was a low life child sex offender. The lowest on the prison totem poll. If this guy didn't beat him to death someone else would have, with or without steel tipped boots. Who cares mess with an innocent child, take your beating to death like a man.

I have no sympathy for the child rapist, but we can do better as a society here.

When we sentence someone to incarceration, they should be imprisoned, not raped, tortured, or killed.

There are some people who are wrongfully imprisoned in Texas, and there are many on nonviolent drug offenses. We need to avoid a setup where the most sociopathic offenders are allowed free reign to prey on the rest of the population there.

i really don't see the problem here...a child sex offender .. well why should he be treated special and i hope his family reads this..they are just looking for cash anyway...maybe they should help the victims of their son instead of worrying about cashing in and how do they know what was said when their son was put in the cell they weren't there

If this guy didn't have a history of violent crime I'd say we need to give him an award for removing this piece of shit from society. The child rapist would have been out in 4 years knowing the Texas criminal "justice" system.